Florida

I've been a busy beaver since we've returned from Florida.  I cranked out a few pages of our trip and thought I'd share.  We started our trip with a special surprise at the airport.  It was 5 am, still dark and we had not had much sleep the night before.  For months we had been telling the kids that we were going to visit cousins in Californa because we had spent our Florida money on a new delivery truck for the business after Casey's old reliable one finally gave up the ghost.   This was entirely true...we did have to spend our much saved trip money on the new truck...which was affectionately called "Walt" in honor of the Disney trip that was not meant to be.  Throughout the summer, we kept the possibility of still going open (privately) if the business had a good enough busy season.  Thankfully, and unknown to the kids, we re-saved the money and were even able to negotiate for some free lodging (through business trade).  Because we decided to go in the off season, we also got ALL of our Disney dining for FREE!!  It was amazing!  Anyway, on that memorable morning, we read the kids a carefully worded poem (see below) about our real intentions.  Charlotte burst into happy tears and the other girls just stared at us.  I don't think it sunk in until we were halfway to Florida. 

Though Disney is a BIG deal, we were fully aware that we would probably never return to Florida as a family again.  Since this was a "once in a lifetime," we arranged to use a few extra days to visit Universal Studios and of course, our first stop was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Oh My Word...it was incredible.  We felt like we had been sucked right into that world!  Jillian was especially excited.  She has read each of the 7 books, 7 times.  As we were waiting in line to get onto the Forbidden Journey, Casey was quizzing Jillian and her Aunt Kailee (also a Potter nut) using a Harry Potter trivia program on his phone.  Jillian was stumping everyone with her knowledge of the Harry Potter world.

How many times do you go on a ride and wish that the line would move slower?  That was the case with the Forbidden Journey.  The cue literally takes you right through Hogwarts.  You start in Herbology, move to Dumbledore's office, to the Great Hall to the Gryffindor Common room.  At one point, Harry, Hermione and Ron appear and perform spells on  you...different ones every time you go through.  The ride itself was intense, and I had to close my eyes through most of it because it made me sick but it is a truly incredible piece of technology!

The last finished page is Jurassic Park.  This section of Universal's Islands of Adventure park was right next to Harry Potter.  It was a fun part of the park but not nearly as cool as Harry's world.  You may notice the matching shirts.  Casey made us 3 sets of matching shirts.  We were so BRIGHT that we could see each other for miles!  It makes amusement park hopping really easy when you want to stay together!